Pirated installs of Monument Valley account for 95% of all installs on Android

Monument Valley has been subject to heaps of praises time and again. It was undoubtedly one of the most beautiful and better games of 2014. The only downside to it is the rather large price tag of $3.99, especially since it’s not a very long game.

Monument Valley has been available on Android and iOS for a while now and now the developers behind it have made some interesting revelations. According to them, 95% of installs of Monument Valley on Android are free and that doesn’t include numbers from the Amazon Appstore. So, only 5% of the installs have actually been paid for. While a small percent of those 95% downloads are legitimate, a chunk of it is pirated. And you’ll have to thank Android’s sideloading ability for that, where users can get the APK from an online website and have it installed on their phone or tablet for free.

On iOS, the number fares much better, with 40% of the downloads being paid for. This makes it pretty clearly why iOS is the number one choice for developers. Also, given the rampant piracy, it makes sense for the developers to adopt freemium model with in-app purchases instead, which is hard to cheat for users. DO you think such a trend on Android can deter developers from making apps for the platforms? Let us know below.